Conversation with Elder Paisios of the Holy Mountain
Visitor: “I often see and judge the failings and defects of others”.
Elder Paisios: “Do you know what your illness is?”
Visitor: “No”
Elder Paisios: “That’s why you know the illness of others.
If you knew your own illness, you wouldn’t know the illness of others.
I am not saying you shouldn’t be concerned with their pain and suffering, but you mustn’t preoccupy yourself with their faults.
If a person is not concerned with his self, the tempter devil will lead him to be concerned with other people’s faults.
If we work on ourselves, then we know ourselves and come to know others as well.
Otherwise, we judge others by wrong assumptions we make about ourselves.”
Elder Paisios, Spiritual Counsels Vol3, “Spiritual Struggle